


Alone and Afraid

by WriterGirlAllDaShips



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25593439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterGirlAllDaShips/pseuds/WriterGirlAllDaShips
Summary: What if Percy, as the hero we all know he is, fell into Tartarus on his own so Annabeth would be safe? Well, that's what we'll be exploring. How is Annabeth supposed to feel? Afraid? Sad? Lost and alone? How will she survive without her Seaweed Brain by her side? And what should Percy think? Should he be glad that Annabeth is safe, or wish she was by his side? Well, I suppose you'll just have to read and find out.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	1. The Fall

Annabeth

1

Annabeth was relieved. There could be nothing more satisfying than watching Arachne fall into Tartarus. She couldn’t help it. She smiled  widely. They had gotten the  Athena  Parthenos.  Her ankle throbbed, but she didn’t care.  She was out of that dark cavern. Away from the spiders.  In the air with the others. With Percy. She was grinning as she shakily stood up. She had done it. What would her mother say now? 

She looked around, and as her eyes landed on Percy and the others, she limped toward them as fast as she could. Leo, Frank in the form of a gorilla, and Jason were tying up the statue to get it away from the edge. Percy jogged toward her. She knew that he had been overly worried about her going on her own. He got to her side and she hugged him, taking the weight off her ankle. 

“What happened, Wise Girl?” Percy asked, worry in his voice. Oh, he saw the bubble wrap, which sadly was not working very well. 

“Fell,” she said simply. Percy chuckled. 

“All that fighting, and your worst injury is from something  an everyday mortal would face .” 

Annabeth too smiled at the irony. Then she felt a twinge in her broken ankle. She gasped in pain. 

Percy put her arm around his shoulders and took all the weight off if it. It didn’t help. She just stood there, panting. It _hurt._

“Annabeth, are you okay?” Percy asked.  The others had walked over, and they caught up with Percy and noticed that Annabeth was in pain. At that moment, there was a  sharp twinge in her ankle. She stumbled backward. Another  twinge .  Then the pain relented.  She sighed in relief. Percy walked cautiously to her side, as if to avoid shaking the ground and causing her ankl e to hurt. Then there was a hard jerk on her ankle, and her feet were swept  out from under her. She was sliding toward the pit. Per cy grabbed her hand, but she instinctively let go when that stopped her, but caused the bones in her ankle to stretch apart. Hazel gasped. 

“Cut the string! Cut it!” 

What string? Annabeth wondered groggily. Her ankle hurt. Percy froze, clearly trying to figure out what Hazel meant. Too late, she saw him move. She tumbled over the edge, and Percy grabbed her arm, falling over as well, but he grabbed a smooth ledge five feet down. She gasped in the sharp pain, and nearly blacked out, but Percy got Riptide out and slashed the air below her legs. The pain stopped. She looked down and saw a Mustang convertible covered in spider webs fall until it disappeared. 

Oh schist. There had been a string attached to her ankl e and the car. That was why she had slid toward Ta rtarus. She looked back up at Percy, and she saw him straining to  keep her up , his fingers starting to slide on the smooth rock.

“Percy,” she said hoarsely. “You can’t pull us both up.” 

He looked back at her and she was worried by the level of resignation in his eyes. 

“Percy, you can’t pull us up. Let me go.” her voice cracked. She looked past him at panicked shouts. She saw the faces of the others poking over the edge. 

Piper, Hazel, and Nico looked horrified. She heard some  distant shouting . Leo , Frank, and Jason had obviously seen the commotion. 

Percy looked down at her. 

“I  probably  can’t pull us up,” he said. Annabeth nodded. He was going to have to let her go. Then he finished the thought. “But I  know I  can get you up.” Her eyes widened. No . Was he that crazy? No. He  _ had  _ to be smarter than that. 

“On the count of three,” he said. Nope. He was that crazy. 

“One-”

“Percy don’t.”

“Two-”

“Percy.” Annabeth felt tears well up in her eyes. 

“Three.” 

He swung her up onto the ledge, but the sudden weight and change of angle caused his hand to slip off the slippery surface. He tumbled into Tartarus as Annabeth held the ledge and screamed his name. 

“The other side,” she heard his fading voice say. “Meet me at the doors!” 

Annabeth couldn’t speak. 

“I love you,” she said, and though she thought he couldn’t hear her, he yelled back up to her, “I love you too, Wise Girl.” 

She stared at his fading  form and screamed his name. She hauled herself  up, so she was sitting on the ledge.  She sat and felt the tears flow. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the last spot she had see n Percy. 

“Annabeth,” came a hoarse voice from above her. She lifted her head and her eyes met  Piper ’s. She absently grabbed an  outstretched hand. They pulled her up, and she was practically leaning on Piper , no one else seeming to know what to do. Why would they? Percy was in Tartarus. She froze and turned back. Percy had been holding onto her with one hand, and  the ledge with the other. 

“Annabeth?” Piper cautiously squeaked. She must have seen the fear in her eyes. 

Slowly walking toward the ledge, Piper held onto her tighter. She was clearly worried that Annabeth was going to jump in after Percy. Should she?  So he wouldn’t be alone? No. He had fallen in to keep her out. It would be selfish of her to jump in. Or would he be secretly relieved? She peeked over the edge, and Piper followed her gaze and gasped. There, on the ledge was Riptide. 

Would it follow him? Did that only  work if it was in pen form?  Where was the cap?  Would  it ’s magic work in Tartarus? Should she throw it down in hopes he would find it? How had she not seen it before?  Her head swam. 

Piper pulled her back. “Hey. Look at me,” she said, kindly but firmly. “It’s going to go back to him. He’ll be okay.”  She paused. “He’s the most powerful demigod I know.” 

Annabeth nodded, wanting to believe her, but at the same time suspecting  that the last thing she would ever hear him say was, ‘I love you, Wise Girl.’ 

As she thought that, she broke down in sobs. None of the team had ever seen Annabeth so defeated, and it worried them a little, but they were too caught up in their own grief to dwell on it much. 

“12,” she muttered to Piper. 

Piper looked up, surprised. 

“What?” She asked. 

“That’s when we met.” 

Piper looked down. “I know there’s nothing I can say to help, but I mean it when I say he’s the strongest demigod I know, and if anyone can do it, he can.” Her eyes lit up. “Besides, N ico did it. It’s been done before.” 

This did cheer Annabeth up a little bit. It wasn’t impossible. It had been done. Though even that wasn’t enough to dry her eyes. Once they were back to the ship, Annabeth left Piper’s side, and though she felt everyone’s eyes on her back, she didn’t look at them. She walked into her cabin and sat down on her bed. She was broken. Percy was in Tartarus, right after he came back to her. He had been missing for eight months, and now he was gone again. She laid down, and she heard someone outside her door. They walked away eventually. After a while, she fell asleep. 

Leo

1

It was all his fault. It was always his fault. No one else pointed it out, but it had been Leo’s idea to get the stupid statue to safety first, and now Percy was in Tartarus. It could have been Annabeth, too. He had been down in the mechanics of the ship for three days, only coming up to eat. He could fix machines. Those were easy. When a machine breaks, all you need is a wrench, screwdriver, and some other variety of tools. But when a person breaks, like Annabeth had... well, that was harder. No, not _harder,_ impossible. How do you even deal with that? How do you talk to someone when it’s your fault their boyfriend fell into Tartarus? 

That just made him feel horrible all over again. He hadn’t been there, but he had heard from Hazel that  Percy’s last words had been that he loved Annabeth.  Argh, no, not last words.  He heard footsteps thumping down the stairs. He pretended to be occupied with the closest thing he could find- Buf ord the table, who had broken down again, and his holographic Coach Hedge wasn’t working right. Not turning around, he knew who it was by the rhythm of thei r steps. 

“Hi, Piper,” he said tonelessly. 

She walked closer to  him and sat on the floor next to him. 

“it’s not your  fault , you know,” she said, surprising him. 

He turned to face her. “What gives you the impression that I think-” 

“Oh please,” Piper cut him off with a snort. “How about the fact that you haven't said a word to anyone since Percy-” she choked u p on his name- “fell,” she continued, somewhat more sadly, “you stare of into space often with a guilty look in your eyes, and whenever you see Annabeth, you  start to say something, then break off. It doesn’t take a genius to see it, you know.” She shook her head exasperatedly. “Even Annabeth sees it.” 

Leo started. “Really?" He looked back at Buford so Piper couldn’t read his expression. 

“Yes. Alright, Repair Boy, I’ll leave you to it,” she said, starting to stand up. 

“Back to being a Beauty Queen, instead of a  therapist ?” Leo asked innocently. 

Piper couldn’t hide a small smile. “I hear a great form of therapy is getting smacked upside the head,” she said threateningly. Leo grinned. “There’s the Pipes I know and lo ve!” 

Piper scowled. “Valdez, how many times-”

“Yeah, yeah, ‘Pipes’ is off limits, I know.” 

“Good. Alright, back to work Valdez, we need Buford up and running to keep everyone in line.” 

With that she turned and left. As soon as she was gone, Leo dropped back into the mood he had been in before. Sad, guilty, and knowing that whatever Piper said, if Percy died down there, it would be his fault. 

Annabeth

2

Annabeth was lost. Lost in a world without Percy,  _ again,  _ but this time, she couldn’t blame Hera. It was all her fault. She should have noticed the string, or known what he was going to do, or  _ something.  _ She could have pushed  off of him, and then she would be down there instead. But now she was lost and alone, in a world that was so strange. Strange to be somewhere, and know Percy could very well be- no. He wasn’t dead. She would  know, wouldn’t she? Or would he just be gone long enough for her to realize that there was no way? Would she ever know? If anything hap pened, she would never know. Her Seaweed Brain might never be seen again.  Alive or- she teared up at the thought- dead. 

She was sitting at the dinner table, but she was having all these thoughts, and she got up, left her plate, and walked into her room. She stood there for a minute, knowing the others would act like nothing had happened, and she was so  grateful fo r that.  She walked back out of her room, but instead of going to the dining hall as she had intended, she decided to turn the other way. She  walked until she came to Percy’s room. She stepped inside and had to work very hard not to break down sobbing. Everything in  there reminded her of him. The way it was deco rated, how there were random cloths strewn around, and how it  _ smelled  _ like him. Salty, like the ocean,  but also just so distinctly  _ him.  _ She sat on his bed, and she felt tears sliding down her face. 

Her Seaweed Brain had done so many things for her, but this was by far the most stupid thing. He had  saved her life in a fight countless times, he had given up immortality for her, he had held the weight of the sky so she wouldn’t have to again, and now that crazy idiot had fallen in to Tartarus so she wouldn’t. 

Percy was in Tartarus. Riptide wasn’t with him. Who knew if he could even have survived the  fall? She  didn't notice Piper standing at the door until she heard a soft, ‘ heh-hm” from  in front of her. She looked up. Piper was smiling sadly at her. 

“Do you want to talk?” She asked. 

Annabeth considered. “I don’t know,” she said. She could tell Piper didn’t like how defe ated her voice sounded. She didn’t much care. She didn’t have the energy to change it. 

“It might help,” Piper pressed. Annabeth nodded. She took a  shaky breath. “Okay.” 

So she talked. All Percy had done for her, how she felt lost and alone, at which Piper hugged her,  and then she told Piper her worst fears. 

“He’s down there in Tartarus, alone, without Riptide, and  first he has to survive the fall.” Her voice seized up. She looked at Piper with hollow eyes. “The things I know about that place...” She felt the tears coming again, so she quickly left and went to her room, and shut the door, making it clear she didn’t want bothered.  How long had it been? Three days? That was the number of two-hour naps she had gotten, so it seemed about right. She had eaten one meal a day, but she hardly noticed that  she was getting thinner. What bothered her the most was that everything was so normal. The sun was still shining. A beetle was sitting in the corner eating  a crumb of something. The stars still sparkled. The whole universe had changed,  and yet everything looked so regular. She wanted to yell at it all to stop and acknowledge that  nothing was the same. Because nothing was the same without Percy. 

She laid down on her bed and got the best sleep in three days. She dreamed about her and Percy. The look on his face the first time she kissed him at Mt. St. Helens, the time he created a bubble u nderwater after the other campers threw them in the lake at Camp Half-Blood, the time  he had told the story of how he had only remembered his name . Then her dream shifted. She was in a dark cavern. There was a red mist everywhere. She looked around and all she saw was a floor made of sharp broken glass , and in the  distance, there were a few cliffs here and there, that she could just see through the haze . Then her eyes rested on something, and she  gasped. She ran toward it, and what she saw made her stomach drop. It was Percy, his neck bent in an angle it wasn’t supposed to go. The glass all around him was stained red, and he had several cuts and  glass dug deep into his skin.  His eyes were open and glazed, and his face was twisted in agony, as if he had died in pain. He was in a miniature crater. This was where he had fallen into Tartarus.  He was dead. Percy was dead and there was nothing she could do. She whirled around as  a shadow loomed over her. It was a huge  Cyclops . She backed off hurriedly, but its eye was rested on Percy , a nd it didn’t notice her.  Everything was lining up to be a real dream, like the ones demigods often had. Her stomach clenched. No. It was something fake. This wasn’t real... was it? The Cyclops grunted, snapping her back to attention. 

“Haven’t seen one in a while.” He leaned closer. “Son of Poseidon,” he said gruffly, sniffing. Then he leaned back and laughed. “Perseus Jackson is dead without any work from anyone but himself.” 

That shook Annabeth. Hearing the words, ‘Perseus Jackson is dead’ wasn’t right. It wasn’t a real sentence. Was it? 

The Cyclops narrowed its eye and looked straight at her. It lifted  its club-

Annabeth jolted awake. She was on her feet with her dagger in her hand in an instant. She was shaking, and then the whole dream  came crashi ng down on her memory.  She  colapsed to the floor, her dagger clattering to the right, and cried heaving sobs. She kept telling herself that it wasn’t real, not all dreams were real, even for a demigod. 

_ But everything lined up,  _ a part of her brain she hated reminded her. 

_ Shut up,  _ she snapped back. 

_ You’ve never been there, but you saw it perfectly.  _

_ Shut  _ up _!  _

_ The Cyclops didn’t notice you until it sensed you,  _ it reasoned. 

“Shut up,” she told her brain aloud. Then she started crying too hard to think. 

Piper

1

Piper woke up because of a thump, and then she heard a clatter. Then sobs. It was coming  from Annabeth’s room. Piper decided she didn’t care if Annabeth didn’t w ant to be disturbed. She went to go check on her. 

She opened the door, and there was Annabeth’s dagger, a few feet away from where Annabeth knelt, sobbing heavily. Piper knocked, and Annabeth looked up. Piper walked over to her and knelt  beside her. Annabeth hugged her and cried into her shoulder. 

“Dream?” Piper asked. Then she realized that that might not mean it wasn’t anything real. Not for demigods. 

“I-I saw him,” Annabeth choked out. Gods. And she was crying, so...

“Piper, he-” she sobbed again. “Red c-clouds. B-b-broken glass g-ground. ” Was she describing Tartarus ? “Th-then h-he was just- the fall- ” she broke off for a while. “P-piper, it wasn’t r-real, w-was it?” 

Annabeth was looking at her with pleading eyes. Piper hated it. Annabeth was her role model. She was strong and brave, and she had always comforted Piper. Now seeing those eyes, pleading with her to tell her that her dream of Pe rcy had been fake, to see her so brokenhearted. It hurt Piper. She wanted to do anything to comfort her friend, but she also couldn’t lie.  Couldn’t give false hope. But she also needed to have hope herself. If she let go of the hope that  Percy was alive, she didn’t know what she would do. And if Piper felt that way, then s he was scared for what Annabeth might do if she lost hope.

“I don’t know,” Piper said. 

“ It s-seemed like a r-r-real one,” Annabeth sobbed. “Everything l-line d up r-ri ght for it to b-be.” Piper was aware of Hazel, who had a room on the other wall to Annabeth, was standing by the wall outside, out of sight, but Piper could hear her. 

“Hazel,” Piper called softly. “It’s okay, you can come in.” Hazel tentatively entered.  It was times like these that reminded Piper that Hazel was thirteen. 

“What was in your dream?” Hazel asked. Gods, 13-year -olds could be so tactless. Annabeth didn’t seem to mind. Or she was already crying as hard as humanly possible. 

“B-broken,” Annabeth said. “Bleeding. And h-his eyes, oh g-gods, his eyes... ” 

Hazel looked away briefly. Piper saw her eyes go red for just a moment. 

“Annabeth,” Hazel said softly. “It probably wasn’t real.” Piper knew that Hazel was trying to help. She wasn’t doing any harm, but Annabeth might have been beyond the poin t of logic meaning any thing. It was like if you were scared of heights, and you knew that the thing you were on was 100% safe, but it was still scary. Dreams could feel real, and when you were a demigod... sometimes, they felt a little  _ too  _ real. Annabeth even tually shooed them away, and as Piper went back to her room, she thought about Annabeth’s dream. What if it was real? Piper couldn’t bear the thought.  Percy was the most powerful demigod they had. She wouldn’t let Jason hear her say it, but she knew it was true. And if he was gone, what chance did the rest of them have. For a brief moment she wished that she and Jason were like that. Then she regretted wishing it, and for the sake of anything that might be listening to her thoughts ,  made it clear it wasn’t a thought through thought. Sure, she wished that she and Jason had that strong of a connection, but if that connection had to be made or shown my making terrible sacrifices for each other? Yeah, all the other thing s he had done were nice, but falling into Tartarus? For love? He must really love her. For a horrifying moment Piper imagined what it might be like if one  of them  actually died . If  possible, to likely death got  this bad of a reaction, would Piper want to see it? No. She wouldn ’t.  She wouldn’t be able to bear the look they would have on their face. With all the thoughts that were floating around in her head, it took her what seemed li ke hours to get to sleep. 

Piper woke up and felt sufficiently rested. She was surprised considering the night she had had. She quickly got dressed, and she headed to the dining hall. Jason saw her before she got all the way down the hall. 

“Someone slept late,” he teased, but she could tell his heart wasn’t in it. 

“Yeah, I had a... interesting night,” Piper sufficed  to say. Jason smiled weakly. 

“I heard .” 

Piper sat down next to Jason. Leo was across from her, Hazel was on her other si de, Frank was next to Hazel,  and Nico stood in the corner in the shadow where he could barely be seen.  T here were two empty seats.  Annabeth didn’t eat. 

Jason nodded as he realized what the look on her face meant. “I imagine what with last night... well, the whole ship could hear her. And anyway, ”  he continued, “She seemed to realize that Percy wouldn’t like it if he got out and Annabeth had starved to death,  so she came and ate food, and left right as I was getting up.” 

“And do you blame her?” Piper asked a little sharper than she meant to. “Sorry,” she mumbled. 

“No,” was all he said. Everyone’s temper was a little short , and everyone was having to  exercise their  self-control .  Breakfast was eaten silence, and everyone went to their own thing. Piper didn’t have anything that she needed to do, surprise , surprise, so she went with Jason.  Again, Piper felt like the LVP.  Annabeth was usually the MVP, but she was currently out of commission. No one seemed sure what to do. Piper decided to  talk to Jason as she followed him. 

“Jason,  what if Percy-”

“No.” Jason cut her off before she could finish. He knew what she was going to say anyway. 

“He’s strong. We can trust him to make it,” Jason said,  seeming to also be reassuring himself. 

“Annabeth said it looked like it was the fall-” 

“What?” Jason asked. “Annabeth had a dream?” He asked miserably. 

Piper nodded. “People have dreams all the time though. It could just be a regular mortal dream?” It came out like more of a question than Piper meant it to. 

Jason looked skeptical. “What was her dream, exactly?” 

By the expression on his face, Piper could tell that he wasn’t sure  if he wanted the answer. 

“She said that there were red clouds, and the ground was broken glass. She said- she said he was broken and bloody and his eyes were  dead, and it looked like he had fallen to death.”  Piper blurted it all out, so the words were heard before her throat  seized up. Gods,  putting it all together like that? Piper realized that it didn’t matter if it was real or not, just to see him like that would be enough to set Annabeth off. Piper  unintentionally imagined Jason like how Annabeth said she had seen Pe rcy.  She tried to shake the image away. Jason laying on broken glass, bleeding and twisted like he shouldn’t... 

Piper hoped Percy was okay. No. She knew Percy was okay.  Nico would know. Oh, gods, Nico! 

“I’m going to go talk to Nico,” Piper said. Jason’s eyes widened. 

“Oh, gods...” 

“Yeah. See you in a bit!” 

Piper hurried off to find Nico. He was still standing on the shadows. Thank  Zeus he hadn’t left yet. 

“Hey, Nico,” Piper said. “So-”

“I can’t feel him,” Nico said. Piper’s heart dropped. 

“You mean-” 

“No, not that,” Nico amended. “I just... can’t tell if someone's alive, I feel it when they die. I don’t know how it works in Tartarus. Maybe I’ll feel it if he dies. If I do, I’ll let you know.” 

Piper nodded. That was something. 

“Thanks, Nico,” she said. He nodded. And then he melted into the shadows. Piper hated when he did that. Shad ow travel was  definitely not a power she wished she had. 

She sighed and walked back to Jason. He looked at her apprehensively. 

“Nico can’t feel him. He says he can’t feel if someone’s alive, he just knows if they die. That hasn’t happened, but he doesn't know how it works in Tartarus.”

Jason sighed. He seemed to realize what she had- if Nico knew, he would have said something. 

In a quieter voice, she added, “He says he’ll tell us if he feels something.” 

Jason nodded grimly.  "But will Annabeth want to hear it?" 

Piper couldn't answer that. If it became definite, what would Annabeth want to hear? The truth? Not be told? She'd figure it out anyway if they didn't tell her. Gods, why was demigod life so complicated? Piper didn't know. All she knew was that she didn't like it. 

"Uh, guys?" Leo called from the front of the ship. He had been talking to Festus. "What are those?" He was pointing to the sky. Piper followed his finger, and she saw three dark shapes flying toward them. 

"Those," Jason said, "are Furies." 


	2. Percy 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy is alone in Tartarus. How will he survive?

Percy 1

Percy didn’t regret his choice. He could see Annabeth, and he heard her call to him. Percy could just make out the words. He smiled.   
“I love you too, Wise Girl.”   
He couldn’t see her anymore, but he kept looking up until the square of light disappeared too. For a long way, he had still been able to hear Annabeth screaming his name. At least she was safe. That was the main thing.   
Percy started to think about how he would survive the fall. Unless Tartarus somehow had low gravity, or he slowed before he hit the ground, if there even was one, he was going to be a Percy pancake.  
A lot of time passed, but exactly how much, Percy wasn’t sure. It could have been days, hours, Hades, even minutes! How that was possible, Percy wasn’t sure. He wasn’t quite that bad at telling how much time had passed. As he fell, he heard weird sounds. There would be scuttling sounds that would echo around, and then it would be silent for a while. The whole way down he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.   
Eventually, he could see red mist below him, and it was light enough for him to see a little bit. After not being able to see his own hand, it was quite a relief to see something. And he could sense something below him. Something- oh, a river! He had heard Annabeth talk about the rivers of Tartarus. Could he pull it up to him to slow his fall? Or was it going to kill him? He knew that some of the rivers were deadly. Hopefully this one wouldn’t be. It was his only hope, so he reached out for the river, and pulled it toward him. It rose, and he felt it get closer as he passed through the red mist. He saw it, and it looked like almost regular water, but as he got close, he thought it looked like a mix of liquid and gas, a sort of clear silver that flowed in wisps. Before he got a good look at the scenery, he plunged into the water. He guided it back into the rest of the river and breathed a sigh of relief. He had made it.   
But so what?   
Sure, he had survived the landing, but this was where monsters went when they dies. It would be like walking through monster central, and most of them held a grudge of some kind against him. There were Titans down here. Giants, Cyclopes, Medusa, the Minotaur. They all were going to hunt him down as soon as they knew he was here. The gods themselves didn’t come down here. What chance did Percy have? He might as well just stay in the river. Let the others defeat Gaea. They could make it. He had saved Annabeth.   
Annabeth. He had to see her again. He couldn’t hurt her. He had to try to make it back.   
Percy swam toward the bank. He got out, and when he looked back at the river, he remembered some of the things Annabeth had told him about the rivers in Tartarus. There was pain, memory loss, death/iron skin, more pain, and misery. Phlegathon, Lethe, Styx, and he didn’t know the other two, but this river was definitely misery. Of all the rivers to fall in, Percy supposed that was the best, but none of them were very nice. Would it be possible for Percy to just ride the river until he saw something that told him where to go? He stepped into it, and he again felt like nothing mattered, Gaea was going to win, and there was no way he would make it out alive. Percy quickly stepped back out of the river. Okay, that wasn’t an option. The effects were slowly wearing off, but Percy still felt hopeless. He considered making a pathway in the water, so it wasn't touching him, but the monsters couldn’t get to him. Then he heard the voices.   
_You belong with usss_.  
Percy started. Had that come from the river?  
 _You have cause so many to sufferrr._  
Like who? Who had he caused to suffer? Percy realized the answer right before the river answered.   
_All those down here who hunt youuu. They are not without good caussse._  
So much for his idea. Percy got away from the river as fast as he could. That’s when he noticed he was unarmed. He felt his back pocket. Riptide should have appeared by now. Where was it? Then he remembered. He had left it, in sword form, on the ledge. It wasn’t working for some reason, most likely because Tartarus acted different. He walked for a little ways, and he scanned his surroundings. The red mist was above him, like clouds. The ground was made of broken glass, and he could see cliffs in the distance. This was a place. Just a new environment. Sure, it was densely populated with monsters, but it was still just a place. Percy could make it. He could survive.   
Thats when he saw the car. It was the car that had brought Arachne down. He scrambled over to it.   
He reached the car, and he noticed the drag marks leading away from it. Arachne was alive. Or, she had just crawled away to die in private.  
Hopefully.   
Percy needed a weapon, so he grabbed a shred of the shell of the car that was sticking out. He ripped it off, and the edges were relatively sharp. It was a bit wobbly, and the balance was in no way good, but it was better than nothing. So he just walked. Not really a specific direction but holding still wasn’t going to help him. He noticed movement over by some of the cliffs, and he realized that he didn’t like how open it was there. Although it meant that nothing could sneak up on him, it was he who needed the element of surprise.   
For the first time, Percy realized that his skin was blistering. That wasn’t good. His breathing was getting hard, and his throat felt raw. The air was poisonous. Great.   
Eventually, Percy noticed a glow in the distance. He followed it, because why not, and it led him to a river, but it looked like fire. Not like lava, but it was liquid fire. Percy knew it was water, because he could feel it, but it was most definitely fire. Percy tried to remember what Annabeth had told him about the fire river. It was the Phlegathon, a pain river. There had been something else though. Tentatively, Percy put his hand in the water. It burned.   
Well duh, his brain said. Let’s stick my hand in liquid fire. Oh, it burns! Wow, shocking!   
“Yeah, yeah,” Percy mumbled, pulling his hand back out. But instead of being burned, the blisters were gone.   
Yep. Annabeth had been right. The Phlegathon burned, but it also healed you. Steeling himself, Percy cupped some to his mouth and drank it. It felt like- can you guess? -pouring fire down his throat.   
Looking down, Percy could visibly see his blisters fading. Good. He decided he would walk by the river for a while. He thought about the other rivers. There was the misery river. That he had experience with. Then there was the Styx, and he was by the Phlegathon. There was another pain river, and there was the Lethe. Did he have any experience with that one? He vaguely remembered pushing a Titan into that one- Iapetus. What was the name he had given him?  
“Bob,” Percy chuckled. He would have felt bad about that, but Iapetus- or Bob- had been trying to kill him. And he was happier now. Or was he? Percy had meant to check up on him, but he hadn’t seen him since he had wiped his memory. He was a little bit compassionate toward Bob now that he had had his memory wiped too.   
Percy had been enjoying how easy it was to go through, but he realized that that was never a good thing. That either meant something was wrong, and the monsters were all gathered somewhere, or they were hiding.   
If that wasn’t enough to put him on edge, the distant echoing roar sure was. He spun around, sword- or rather, wimpy car piece- in hand, but he couldn’t see any monsters. He kept walking, but then he heard a hissing from behind him. He spun around, and there was Arachne, five feet away. He just had time to notice that she had once been beautiful, but the eight legs, eyes, and the pincers sticking out of her face ruined it before she lunged. With one swing he cut her head off. His car piece might be flimsy, but it was sharp. He watched as she crumbled into gold dust. She had died too easy. They always died too easy. If he had been thinking about it, he could have made her death last, make her hurt-  
What? No! Where were these thoughts coming from? Percy shook his head to clear it. He wouldn’t play mind games with Tartarus. 

He walked for what seemed like ages, but it could have been an hour. Time seemed to work different down there. After a while, Percy started to get hungry. He didn’t have anything to eat, so it didn’t matter. If he did manage to find something to eat, he was going to take as much as he could, because if he found food it would most likely be a one time thing. But then again, what did he know about Tartarus? He might walk around a corner and see a MacDonald’s. Percy almost laughed, but it didn’t feel right. Like laughing at a funeral, you know? Except he really hoped it wasn’t his.

Looking ahead, he saw a group of things in the distance that looked like Furies from there, but there were hundreds of them. Percy liked too easy. Too easy was nice. Maybe he could just turn around, and they wouldn’t-  
Angry screeching broke out, and the cloud of bat ladies flew toward him. He had no chance of outrunning them, and there were hundreds of them. He felt the despair return, but this time it had nothing to do with the river. Percy stood his ground. Strangely, all the bat ladies stopped before they reached him. Up closer he could see that they weren’t quite the same as the Furies.   
“ _We are the Arai_.” Percy didn’t see any of their mouths move, but it sounded like all of them had spoken at once.   
“The what-now?” Percy asked. The more they talked, the more he could figure out a strategy.   
“ _Arai_ ,” they hissed. “ _The curse bringers._ ”   
“Uh, thanks, but I think I could do without any curses. My curse-o-meter is full.”   
Was that a laugh? It was kind of creepy to hear a hissing laugh coming from everywhere and nowhere.   
“ _Strike us down Little Hero_ ,” they taunted. Then one of them lunged at him, claws outstretched. Percy sliced it and dropped to the ground as it turned to dust. It hadn’t touched him, but he had a stab wound in his side. It was shaped like a horn.   
Another attacked him, and Percy had no choice but to kill it too, and as it turned to dust, there was a wound in his side. And his other side. Like an arrow had gone straight through him.   
Curse bringers. Horn shaped wound. Arrow all the way through.   
Every time Percy killed an Arai, he got the wound of something he had killed that had cursed him. The Minotaur. Geryon.   
“ _He understands_ ,” the Arai laughed. “ _You cannot win_.”   
He didn’t have very good options. Get cursed by the Arai, or get shredded by them. Oh, joy.   
Instinct took over, and despite the fact that he tried to only maim them, a lot still died. He had multiple wounds, some of which he couldn’t remember. A few times he killed them, and nothing happened, or it was something subtle like a small cut. That he didn’t understand. Why even bother with that? But the ones that did nothing worried him. Maybe they forgot. Maybe it was something so subtle he didn’t notice. Or maybe it was something in the future.   
Percy sliced one in half, after he tried to cut off her wings, and she dodged, but it went worse for her. And for him. He dropped his sword. It felt like he was dissolving.   
“ _Gorgon’s blood_ ,” the Arai hissed. Oh, it was the thing they had used on Phineas. Great. The Arai didn’t seem to think he was worth attacking. He was dead anyway  
“ _Will his head go first? Or will he erupt all at once_?”   
It was bad enough, but now they were speculating how he would die? Thanks, guys. Way to make a demigod feel great. Percy was on the ground in a daze, and a Titan wearing a janitor’s outfit dropped out of the air.   
Percy would have been terrified, but he was already dying, so it didn’t really matter. Then the Titan started smashing the Arai with a broom. They scattered with much shrieking.

“Don’t hurt Percy!”

A bunch of Arai exploded, and the rest flew off, some wounded, some dying, and all shrieking curses at the Titan. Except for the one who got a broom handle and a crushed windpipe. and the Titan picked Percy up and carried him off. Percy wondered curiously where the Titan was taking him. He lifted his head and looked at the Titan’s nametag.   
“Bob?” Percy said, incredulous.   
“Yes,” he answered.   
Percy was lucky. Or, he would be if he weren’t dying of gorgon’s blood.   
“Where’m I goin’?” Percy asked, his words slurring as the blood took a stronger hold.   
“Damasen.”   
That didn’t answer Percy’s question, but he heard the same roar from earlier rumble across the ground. He could feel the vibrations, but it could have been his imagination.   
“Going there,” Bob said.   
Oh great, Percy thought. Let’s go right to the thing that sounds like it will kill us. Percy did his best to stay awake, but the gorgon’s blood had a strong hold on him, and he passed out 


End file.
